Vonnie Von Helmolt

Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary

A cinematic version of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's adaptation of Bram Stoker's gothic novel Dracula. Filmed in a style reminiscent of silent Expressionist cinema of the early 20th century (complete with intertitles and monochrome photography), it uses dance to tell the story of a sinister but intriguing immigrant who preys upon young English women.

Silver Wolf

A boy learns to deal with personal loss by making friends with a wild animal in this drama for the entire family. Jesse is a 16-year-old who is trying to put his life back together after the death of his father, who died while trying to rescue him in the wilderness. Jesse goes to live with his Uncle Roy, who lives in the rugged mountains of Washington State. While exploring, Jesse finds and rescues a wolf who has been seriously wounded; Jesse bonds with the animal, and while Roy understands the dangers of trying to tend to a wild animal, reluctantly allows Jesse to keep him. Jesse, who is fond of snowboarding, teaches the wolf to be his partner in skijoring, a sport in which a dog is used to haul a man on skis. John Rockwell the owner of a ranch, has different plans for the animal; he sees the wolf as a threat to his stock and is determined to see that the animal is put down.

The Clown at Midnight

Upon the reopening of the opera house where her mother was murdered, a teen and her friends become the targets of a deranged killer dressed in a clown costume.

Trucks

A group of seemingly humanistic trucks takeover a truck stop and starts killing everything in sight. The remaining townsfolk must band together and come up with a way to murder the inanimate objects, a seemingly difficult task considering the abnormal circumstances.

Black Ice

A young woman on the run from a murderous rogue government agent hooks up with a pony-tailed taxi driver who reluctantly agrees to help her.

Mistress Madeleine

Part of the Daughters of the Country series, this film, set in the 1850s, unfolds against the backdrop of the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly of the fur trade. In protest, some Métis engage in trade with the Americans. Madeleine, the Métis common-law wife of a Hudson's Bay Company clerk, is torn between loyalty to her husband and loyalty to her brother, a freetrader. Even more shattering, a change in company policy destroys Madeleine's happy and secure life, forcing her to re-evaluate her identity.

Carried Away

This animation film celebrates the creative process--its beauty, fury, and consequences. It is a highly stylized and impressionistic rendering; each scene corresponds to a step in the process. Black and white photographs, representing reality, are overlaid with animated colour drawings, representing fantasy. It illustrates the artist braving creative storms, indulging runaway imagination and learning, by trial and error, to take possession of his creative energy. Film without words.

Daydream

A short trip into daydream-like surrealism.